Growth parameters: average daily feed intake
(ADFI), average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency (FE) of broiler
chickens fed graded levels of vitamin C were investigated. One hundred and
twenty (120) day-old chicks were used in the study. Chicks were brooded and
similarly reared for 4 weeks to fully pre-condition them to their new
environment. At the end of this, animals were weighed to obtain their
initial body weights (BW) and randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments of
30 birds/treatment and 3 replicates of 10 birds/replicate: T1 (control diet,
contained only basal level of vitamin C), T2 (diet 2, contained vitamin C at
200mg/kg of diet), T3 (diet 3, contained vitamin C at 300mg/kg of diet) and
T4 (diet 4, contained vitamin C at 400mg/kg of diet). The animals received
their respective diets for 4 weeks. On the last day of study, animals were
re-weighed to obtain their final BW. There were no differences (P > 0.05)
in the ADFI amongst dietary treatment groups. ADG showed significant (P <
0.05) differences as T1, T2, T3 and T4 groups gained approximately 48g, 67g,
76g and 95g/day, respectively. Significant (P < 0.05) differences were
also observed in the FE: T1, T2, T3 and T4 showed FE of 34%, 44%, 51% and
63%, respectively. It was concluded that dietary vitamin C improved ADG and
FE in broiler chickens.
Accepted:05/05/2023
Published: 10/05/2023
*Corresponding
Author
Mr. Diri Moses
E-mail: dirimoses@yahoo.com
Keywords: Growth, Performance, Vitamin C and the Broiler chicken.
INTRODUCTION
Broiler
chickens are very fast growing species and as such can reach market weight in
most cases in eight (8) weeks. The fast growing process of the animals therefore
necessitates that the dietary nutrients of broilers should match their nutrient
requirements of their fast growing physiological patterns. Also, their natural fast
growing nature makes them highly susceptible to many environmental stressors,
including nutrition. This is an indication that their micro-nutrients should
match their needs, especially the anti-oxidants, such as vitamin C; otherwise
the animal growth can be reduced or stunted leading to stunted growth and sometimes
even result in death of the animals, often referred to as “sudden death
syndrome” (Hoerr, 1998; NRC, 2012). The attendant effect of the fore-stated
challenge no doubt leads to the reduction of the poultry farmer profit margin
and in the extreme case results in huge financial losses.
In the past, supplementing poultry
diets with antibiotics at sub-therapeutic levels had traditionally been
employed to improve animal growth rates (Cromwell, 2002). However, at present
due to global growing concerns over the resistance of pathogenic bacteria to
antibiotics, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal diets,
including poultry, is limited as a result of public and regulatory pressures. Therefore,
nutrition becomes the major key in the prevention-modulation reflecting a
specific accent in diet as an essential strategy in the preservation of the
animal’s wholeness. Hence, nutritional science has to move towards the
development of recommendations for optimal dietary ingredients, especially as
it relates to micro-nutrients such as the antioxidant vitamins for the
maintenance of good health of the fast growing bird for eventual optimal
productivity (NRC, 2012).
Currently, it is understood that
antioxidant nutrient requirements for the protection of the bird need to be
properly established and documented in respect to animal needs in terms of
growth and the health of the animal (NRC, 2012). Here, one of the major
micro-nutrients dietary factor with special emphasis on the health of the
animal and consequently better support the growth of the animal is antioxidant
vitamin C because of its involvement in the regulation of the glutathione
system of the animal (Harrison and May, 2010). However, to date there is
paucity of information on vitamin C requirement for optimal growth in broiler
chickens. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to measure growth
parameters characteristics of broiler chickens fed graded levels of vitamin C mainly
on: average daily feed intake, average daily gain and feed efficiency,
respectively.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Experimental site
This
study was carried out at the poultry unit of the Teaching and Research Farm,
Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt. The farm is situated
at latitude 40 48’N and longitude 60 48’E at the Rivers
State University campus.
Experimental Animals
One
hundred and twenty (120) Agrited day-old
chicks were acquired from a reputable commercial poultry dealer in
Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. The animals on arrival at the Rivers State University
Teaching and Research Farm were brooded to proper pre-condition them to their
new environment. The animals by the fourth week were observed to have properly
adapted to their environment and thus were randomly assigned to four treatment
groups of 30 birds/treatment group with 3 replications of 10 birds/replicate.
The pens were properly cleaned and disinfected before the birds’ arrival. Feeders
and drinkers were also properly cleaned to also ensure that the animals’
environment were “pathogen-free”. During the brooding period all protocols,
including the necessary medications were provided. Animals were fed similar
diets from day one through the end of the 4th week. Water was
provided ad libitum. The experiment
lasted for 8 weeks and thus animals received their respective experimental
diets for 4 weeks after the brooding period.
Experimental Diets
Hybrid
feed TM grower mash feeds were used in the study. In other words,
the diets fed to the animals during the last four weeks of the experimental
period were similar in all nutrients except their dietary vitamin C levels as: control
or treatment 1 (T1, contained only basal level (30mg) of vitamin C/kg
of diet), treatment 2 (T2, contained 200mg of vitamin C), treatment
3 (T3, contained 300mg of vitamin C) and treatment 4 (T4,
contained 400mg of vitamin C)/kg of diet, respectively. The animals were fed
these graded levels of vitamin C-based diets for 4 weeks.
Experimental
Procedure and Data Collection
Feed
intake was strictly monitored as to be able to compute the amount of feed
ingested by each treatment group. Therefore, at the beginning of each day of
the 4 weeks of the experimental period, orts from the previous day was usually
collected, air-dried, weighed and recorded. The difference between dry feed
delivered and the next day’s orts represents the actual feed consumed by the
animal for the day. As the animals were weighed at the end of the first 4 weeks
of adaptation to obtain their initial body weights (BW) for the study, they
were also re-weighed on the last day of trial to obtain their final body
weights. The difference between the final and initial BW represents the weight
gained during the last 4 weeks of the study period. Average daily feed intake
(ADFI) was determined as the difference between the total amount of feed consumed
and orts, divided by the number of birds in the pen, divided by the number of
days of the study period. Average daily gain (ADG) was computed by dividing the
weight gain during the study period by the number of days of the study period.
Feed efficiency (FE) which is gain/feed was obtained by dividing the ADG by the
ADFI.
Experimental Design
and Statistical Analysis
The
study was carried out as a completely randomized design (CRD). Data were
subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using general linear model (GLM)
procedure of SAS. Treatment means were compared using Tukey’s test. Because CRD
was used, the model was: Yij= µ + Xi + Eij,
where Yij= individual observation of the treatment, µ = population
mean, Xi= effect of the ith treatment and Eij=
the error term. An α-level of 0.05 was used for all statistical
comparisons to represent significance.
RESULTS
The
results of the performances of the animals in the T1, T2,
T3 and T4 diet groups are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Mean Growth
Responses of Broiler Chickens Fed Graded Levels of Vitamin C-Based Diets
TREATMENTS
Item
T1
T2
T3
T4
SEM
P-value
ADFI
(g)
151.17
151.167
150.83
150.33
0.18
0.34
Initial
weight (Kg)
1.10
1.10
1.11
1.10
0.21
0.67
Final
weight (kg)
2.10c
2.5b
2.7b
3.1a
0.18
0.02
ADG
(g)
47.62c
66.68b
76.1a
95.24d
0.001
0.000
FE
(ADG/ADFI)
0.34c
0.44b
0.51a
0.63d
0.001
0.000
a,b,c,dMeans within each row with different
superscript significantly differ (P <
0.05)
As
shown in Table 1, the ADFI of the animals from all dietary treatment groups
were similar as there were no significant (P
> 0.05) differences between them. However, despite the non-existence of
significant differences in the average daily feed intake, there were significant
(P < 0.05) differences in the
rates of weight gain during the study period by the animals on the four dietary
treatment groups. Animals in the T1 dietary group demonstrated ADG
of 47.62g which was significantly (P <
0.05) lower than the rates animals in the T2 dietary treatment
group gained weight, that is, 66.68g whereas, animals in the T3
dietary treatment group had (76.1g) ADG with the animals on diet T4
had the best ADG of 95.24g.
The FE mirrored the ADG pattern. There were
significant (P < 0.05) differences
in the FE of the four dietary treatment groups. Just as it was with the ADG,
the FE of the T1 group was the lowest (0.34) while that of T2 (0.44)
and T3 (0.51) whereas T4 animals demonstrated the best FE
of 0.63.
DISCUSSION
Antibiotics
had been used in the diets of non-ruminant animals, including poultry at sub-therapeutic
levels for years to improve growth and reproductive performance (NRC, 2012). At
present there are bans of the use of certain antibiotics in non-ruminants’
diets, principally due to development of certain strains of pathogenic organisms
that are resistant to antibiotics. From nutrition standpoint, growth
physiologically can be used to assess the health status of an animal.
Economically, normal growth rates of the animal are a characteristic all animal
farmers cherish as it positively affects profit margins in any commercial
setting of animal production, including poultry.
Again, with the bans of the use of
antibiotics in the diets of animals the animal producers are strategizing for
alternatives to antibiotics as to be able to sustain and keep the levels of
their animal performance at optimum levels. Nutall et al. (1999) demonstrated that antioxidant vitamins, particularly
vitamin C in addition with vitamin E could be used as replacements for
antibiotics as to boost the health of the animal and thus better support
improved animal performance. In this current study, the effects of graded
levels of vitamin C on growth parameters of broiler chickens were investigated.
As shown in Table 1, the results showed that despite the similarity in the
ADFI, there were significant differences in the ADG. For instances, while the T1
group of animals had an ADG value of 47.62g, the diets with the added vitamin C,
that is, the T2, T3 and T4 groups had superior
gainscompared to the value of the T1
group. These were 66.68g, 76.2g and 95.24g, respectively. In true economic
terms, these translated into 40%, 60% and 100% improvements respectively, for
the T2, T3 and T4 groups over that of T1
group. Furthermore, the FE of T2, T3 and T4 dietary
groups were 29%, 50% and 85% superior, respectively over that of T1
group. From the findings of this study, it is clear that fortifying broiler
diets with antioxidant vitamin C exerted their antioxidant potentials that
aided the animals to perform better than the T1 animals whose diet
contained only basal level of the vitamin C (Gupta and Viswanathan, 2000). This
might also be related to the fact that vitamin C always regenerate vitamin E
leading to sustained activities of these vitamins in regulating the animal defense
systems, such as the immune and glutathione defense systems of the animal
(Johnson et al. 2019). The overall
effect of this therefore, would result in better growth performance as observed
in this current study. These findings are therefore in agreement with the data
of Nutall et al. (1999) and Johnson et al. (2019).
CONCLUSION
Vitamin
C supported broiler chicken growth, especially at the 400mg of vitamin C/kg of
diet. Furthermore, at this same level of 400mg of vitamin C/kg of diet feed,
efficiency was most significantly improved.
REFERENCES
Cromwell,
G. L. 2002. Why and how antibiotics are used in swine production. Anim.
Biotechnol. 13:7-27.
Gupta,
K. C. & Viswanathan, R. 2000. Combined action of streptomycin and
chloramphenicol with plant antibiotics against tubercle bacilli.1. Streptomycin
and chloramphenicol with cepharanthine. 11. Streptomycin and allicin. Antibiot.
Chemother. Wash. DC, 85-90.
Harrison,
F. E. and May, J. M. 2010. Vitamin C function in the brain; vital role of the
ascorbate transporter SVCT2. Free Rad. Biol. Med. 46:719-730.
Hoerr,
F. J. 1998. Pathogenesis of enteric diseases. Poult. Sci. 77:1150-1155.
Johnson,
N. C. Popoola, S. O. and Owen, O. J. 2019. Effects of single and combined
antioxidant vitamins on growing pig performance and pork quality. Inter. J.
Advance Res. Public. 3(8):86-89.
NRC,
2012. Nutrient Requirements of Swine. 11th Ed. Natl. Acad. Press,
Washington, D. C.
Nutall,
S. L., Kendell, M. J. and Martin, U. 1999. Antioxidant therapy for the
prevention of cardiovascular disease. QSM. 92:239-244.
Cite this Article: Diri, M; Woke, JA; Leton De-Great, KC; Johnson, NC (2023). Growth
Performance of Broiler Chickens Fed Graded Levels of Vitamin C. Greener Journal of Biological Sciences,
13(1): 12-15, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8023192.
